Cemil Bayik

Cemil Bayik (1951-) was the military commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) from 1986 to 1995, succeeding Mahsum Korkmaz and preceding Nizamettin Tas.

Biography
Cemil Bayik was born in 1951 in Keban, Elazig Province, Turkey to a Kurdish family. He was one of the five founders of the communist Kurdistan Workers' Party in 1978, and he became Deputy Secretary-General of the PKK after their first congress that year under Abdullah Ocalan. In 1986 he succeeded Mahsum Korkmaz as the PKK's military commander on his death, and in the early 1990s he was the director of the Mahsum Korkmaz Academy in Lebanon, which trained PKK fighters. In 1995, after several leadership struggles, Bahoz Erdal became the leader of the PKK's new military wing, so Bayik was effectively overthrown. He became the ambassador to Iran, and he headed to Iran several times, including going to a base in Urumiyeh. By 2007, he was the second most-powerful person in the PKK, although his leadership was criticized, as he commanded from afar.